World in Brief

Published: September 22, 2011 7:33AM

Ga. executes Davis, who drew legions of supporters but found no court to throw out conviction

JACKSON, Ga. (AP) — Strapped to a gurney in Georgia's death chamber, Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail. Just a few feet away behind a glass window, MacPhail's son and brother watched in silence.

Outside the prison, a crowd of more than 500 demonstrators cried, hugged, prayed and held candles. They represented hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide who took up the anti-death penalty cause as Davis' final days ticked away.

“I am innocent,” Davis said moments before he was executed Wednesday night. “All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight.”

Prosecutors and MacPhail's family said justice had finally been served.

“I'm kind of numb. I can't believe that it's really happened,” MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. “All the feelings of relief and peace I've been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace.”

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Obama heads to Boehner and McConnell backyards to press for jobs bill passage

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is marketing his massive jobs proposal from an outdated bridge that links the home states of his two chief congressional Republican rivals, a symbolic and cheeky maneuver designed to apply pressure on the GOP and convey resolve in the face of a sputtering economy.

Obama will make his pitch Thursday for $447 billion in tax cuts, jobless aid and public works projects at the Brent Spence Bridge south of Cincinnati, an aging span that connects House Speaker John Boehner's state of Ohio with Kentucky, home of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. The politics are clear.

“The point here is that it's not an accident that we're headed to that area,” said White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

Strategically, the visit serves Obama's legislative and political goals. The president is making his jobs bill the focus of his fall agenda amid broad public disapproval over his handling of the economy. The trip also raises Obama's profile in Ohio, a state that he won in 2008 but that George W. Bush also won twice.

Public opinion polls show only about 1 in 4 people approves of Obama's economic performance. The president is seeking to put his differences with Republicans into sharper relief and shift to them some of the responsibility for the nation's high unemployment and feeble economic growth.

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AP IMPACT: NYPD had surveillance on US citizens based on ethnicity, not any possible crimes

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department put American citizens under surveillance and scrutinized where they ate, prayed and worked, not because of charges of wrongdoing but because of their ethnicity, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The documents describe in extraordinary detail a secret program intended to catalog life inside Muslim neighborhoods as people immigrated, got jobs, became citizens and started businesses. The documents undercut the NYPD's claim that its officers only follow leads when investigating terrorism.

It started with one group, Moroccans, but the documents show police intended to build intelligence files on other ethnicities.

Undercover officers snapped photographs of restaurants frequented by Moroccans, including one that was noted for serving “religious Muslims.” Police documented where Moroccans bought groceries, which hotels they visited and where they prayed. While visiting an apartment used by new Moroccan immigrants, an officer noted in his reports that he saw two Qurans and a calendar from a nearby mosque.

It was called the Moroccan Initiative.

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Pope begins 4-day state visit in Germany amid protests, expectations

BERLIN (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Germany on Thursday on his first state visit to his homeland, where he is expected to be greeted by large protests and even larger crowds of Catholic faithful.

The Bavarian-born pontiff was met on a red carpet at Berlin's Tegel airport by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff at the start of his four-day visit.

Howitzers fired a ceremonial salute as the pope stepped off his plane, and Eurofighter jet escorts flew overhead.

Merkel introduced the pope to members of her Cabinet. He then greeted members of the German Catholic Church and children who stood waiting for him with small yellow-and-white Vatican flags and presented him with a bouquet of flowers.

Benedict blessed the children before moving on, accompanied by Merkel and President Wulff to his car.

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Recession's lost generation: Census finds new lows in mobility, jobs, wedlock for young adults

WASHINGTON (AP) — Call it the recession's lost generation.

In record-setting numbers, young adults struggling to find work are shunning long-distance moves to live with Mom and Dad, delaying marriage and buying fewer homes, often raising kids out of wedlock. They suffer from the highest unemployment since World War II and risk living in poverty more than others — nearly 1 in 5.

New 2010 census data released Thursday show the wrenching impact of a recession that officially ended in mid-2009. It highlights the missed opportunities and dim prospects for a generation of mostly 20-somethings and 30-somethings coming of age in a prolonged slump with high unemployment.

“We have a monster jobs problem, and young people are the biggest losers,” said Andrew Sum, an economist and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. He noted that for recent college grads now getting by with waitressing, bartending and odd jobs, they will have to compete with new graduates for entry-level career positions when the job market eventually does improve.

“Their really high levels of underemployment and unemployment will haunt young people for at least another decade,” Sum said.

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Asian carp for dinner? Illinois' proposed solution to the invasive species problem and hunger

Illinois officials hope serving the invasive species on a plate is the creative solution to two big problems: controlling the plankton-gobbling carp from entering the Great Lakes and record numbers of people facing hunger. But the idea has major obstacles, mainly overcoming people's nose-crinkling response to eating a fish that grows to 100 pounds and is able to sail out of the water — a trait spotlighted in YouTube videos.

“We are in unchartered water here,” said Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris McCloud. “Why remove them and put them into a landfill when you can take them and use them for good? If we can get past the name 'carp' and the perception ... we can prove this is going to be a highly nutritious, cheap meal.”

Starting Thursday, the department launches a campaign to change the fish's image and demonstrate how to work with the ultra-bony meat. Officials have enlisted Louisiana chef Philippe Parola, who's become a national advocate for the fish he calls silverfin. He plans to fry up the fish that tastes something like mahi mahi, so audience members can taste samples.

Getting carp to soup kitchens and food pantries is months off, said Tracy Smith, a director for Feeding Illinois, which supplies food banks and is helping on the project.

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Romney, Perry sharpen criticism of each other ahead of busy schedule in senior-rich Florida

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republicans seeking the presidency have spent months pitching glossy versions of themselves to voters, but they now find their rivals highlighting the unspoken caveats in their records.

Ahead of Thursday afternoon's candidate forum and an evening debate in swing-state Florida, their advisers telegraphed the criticism each campaign was likely to use. As most of the candidates plan a two-day trip to the hard-fought swing state, they are ramping up their rhetoric against each other.

For instance: Texas added jobs during the economic recession under Gov. Rick Perry's leadership. But unemployment went up last month and is at the highest level since 1987, rival Mitt Romney noted.

Americans freed by Iran stay out of public eye in Oman on first leg home

MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Two Americans released from an Iranian prison were spending their first full day of freedom Thursday in seclusion with their families, after more than two years in custody accused as spies.

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer arrived Wednesday in Oman under a $1 million bail-for-freedom deal and were embraced by relatives. Also on hand was Sarah Shourd, who was freed by Iran last year.

It was a joyful reunion in the Gulf state of Oman and the families called it “the best day of our lives.” President Barack Obama said the men's release was “wonderful news.”

The three were detained in July 2009 along the Iran-Iraq border. They maintained their innocence, saying they were only hiking in Iraq's relatively peaceful Kurdish region and might have accidentally wondered into Iran. Last month, Fattal and Bauer were sentenced to eight years in prison each for illegal entry into Iran and espionage.

American and Omani officials did not disclose details on Thursday about the Americans' plans and when they may head home. After Shourd was freed last September, she stayed for days in Oman before she flew to United States.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Police officer Manuel Ramos didn't talk to prosecutors who were considering charges against him in the death of a homeless, mentally ill man who died after a violent fight with police — but in the end, according to a district attorney, his own voice may have done him in.

As Ramos snapped on a pair of latex gloves and leaned over a confused Kelly Thomas, prosecutors say, his body microphone and surveillance tape captured an angry threat: “Now, see my fists? They are getting ready to 'F' you up.”

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas called the statement the “turning point” from which a routine July 5 police stop spiraled into an explosion of violence that eventually involved six police officers and left Thomas unconscious and in a pool of his own blood. He was removed from life support and died five days later.

In the 10-minute long beating, Fullerton police officers pinned Thomas to the ground so hard that he had trouble breathing. Prosecutors say he was shocked four times with a Taser, kneed in the head, punched in the ribs and bashed eight times around the face with the butt of a stun gun as he cried out for his father and begged for help.

Like old times: Posada's 2-run single clinches AL East for Yankees with 4-2, 4-2 sweep of Rays

NEW YORK (AP) — A month past his 40th birthday, Jorge Posada walked up to home plate and found himself in a position so familiar, yet so different.

A starter no more, a champion still.

Posada came off the bench and helped the Yankees to yet another first-place finish, hitting a tiebreaking, two-run single in the eighth inning Wednesday night. The big hit propelled New York to sweep the Tampa Bay Rays by identical 4-2 scores in a day-night doubleheader, clinching the AL East title.

So filled with emotion was Posada, he was sure the game was over when his bases-loaded hit bounced into right field as pinch-runner Greg Golson came home from third.

“I thought it was the bottom of the ninth, to tell the truth,” Posada said. “Then I saw Tex (Mark Teixeira) scoring from second base, and I was like, 'What's going on?'”